I think John Shelby Spong is talking about many of the most important theological issues facing the church, and I think he draws on some of the most important resources (Bultmann and Tillich) for honestly facing these issues. One thing, however, that makes no sense for me is his talk of being beyond Theism. I know why he says it -- concepts of God are currently so conflated with superstition and even hate, as well as the image of a God out there who intervenes on a whim that theism seems irretrievable because it automatically conjurs these images. But theism has proven itself over time to be an extremely elastic concept, and it isn't as if there is really some widespread agreement about what God would be like. I think Ogden and Hartshorne provide a more hopeful way forward in this regard because they try to show how a revisionary theism (neo-classical) can actually be truer to the typical religious sensibilities than the disfigured form of theism so many embrace in the name of religion.